Downtown San Jose will lose an iconic name later this year when the venerable Sainte Claire Hotel becomes the Westin San Jose.

Sentimentally, I'm not in favor of the change, but I'm hesitant to grab my pitchfork and torch on this one. For one, I'm told that the beautiful blade sign that adorns the building's exterior will remain and will continue to proclaim "The Sainte Claire." The main sign above the front entrance and the rooftop neon sign, however, will be changed to reflect the new name.

The six-story hotel on the corner of Market and San Carlos streets opened in 1926 and was purchased in late 2011 by Lew Wolff and his son, Keith Wolff. The traditionalist in me aches to lose another name seeped in history, as we did when the Hotel Montgomery became the boring-but-more-marketable Four Points Sheraton. But let's face it, out-of-town business travelers -- and San Jose can use more of those -- are more likely to search for a brand like Westin than they are for a boutique hotel.

Now, Westin Sainte Claire would have been my choice for a name, and you might recall that's how Hyatt handled things when the hotel was under its flag. But if you look at the roster of hotels on Westin's website, nearly all of them carry the city's name or geographic area like San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter in their names so it may not have passed muster with corporate.

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The conversion will happen on paper in July, but the full re-branding won't go into effect until later in the year after the renovation of rooms and the lobby are complete. General Manager Eric Pasch said the design team will respect the historic nature of the hotel, which was designed by famed San Francisco firm Weeks and Day.

"If anything, we are really highlighting the history in our design by improving lighting that will further emphasize the wonderful design patterns of the lobby ceiling, in addition to incorporating existing architectural designs of the building into new guest room artwork and carpet," he said.

And, if you're like me, you'll probably just call it the Sainte Claire anyway. And pray that nobody wants to mess with the Hotel De Anza in the future.

BUZZ ABOUT THE BIZ JOURNAL: A networking-minded crowd of about 500 people were at the Tech Museum in downtown San Jose on Thursday night for the party thrown by the newly-christened Silicon Valley Business Journal for its annual "Book of Lists" directory. There was some buzz about the weekly paper shortening its cumbersome name by dropping "San Jose," but most of the chatter was about the recent redesign of its print edition, a project that took nearly a year and was supervised by newspaper design guru Mario Garcia.

The party -- which took place on all three levels of the museum -- also gave the valley's business community a chance to socialize with the Business Journal's new editor-in-chief, Greg Baumann, who came on board in October and made the rounds at the party with his wife, Heidi Wells.

GOOD IDEAS WANTED: Nonprofit group Sustainable Silicon Valley is hosting a competition to promote a "Call for Solutions for Planetary Sustainability," with the idea being to come up with creative answers to regional and global issues like climate change, energy use and water supply. Those are pretty heavy topics, but we've got some pretty smart people around here.

GETTING CREATIVE: I don't know if you've noticed, but the San Jose Museum of Art has really stepped up its game when it comes to lining up interesting activities for its "Third Thursday" evening events over the past few months. The next one on Jan. 17 is exploring the "pop up" culture with local retail network San Jose Made holding a "Mini Mart" in the museum's lobby. You can also exercise your own creativity by making a cup cozy or bracelet from recycled materials with the help of GoGo Craft, a mobile crafting workshop.

And don't forget the galleries, either, which are currently displaying work by Mark Dean Veca and Eric Fischl. Admission is $5 after 5 p.m., and more details are available at www.sanjosemuseumofart.org.